A Splintered Mind

Fulltime parents wake up and hit the ground running. Just like regular working adults. Ever become overwhelmed with all that has to be done the night before? Here are some tips to help you get that mandatory shuteye. Today is going to be a very busy day. I have children to drive all over kingdom come, homeschooling to finish for the day, and then a practice session with my oldest girl before we lay down some tracks for her demo CD. I spent a great bit of yesterday tweaking a new Blues Harp. That was fun. It finally bends and wails as it should, more or less. Now if only I knew how to play it. No, I'm kidding. I'm not worried about that at all. Worry and his big sister, Anxiety, used to be constant companions for me over 15 years ago. I know I'm not very popular for conquering various mental health issues with nothing more than pluck and cheek, but Anxiety was the first condition I banished from my day to day existence without medication. I simply determined I was tired of t...

I don't usually post linkfests, but I came across some interesting articles today that I thought you might enjoy reading. The first was a fluff piece over at Smartbrain.org called " The Ten Habits of Highly Effective Brains ". With advice like "remember the brain is part of the body" I wasn't expecting much, though I found myself wholeheartedly agreeing with their point #10 on laughter. However, their article was inspired in part by a thought provoking piece over at the New York Times. This is the article that excited me the most. " Lobes of Steel " is a must read for people who struggle with their brain because of failing memory, attention, or cognitive acuity. Personally, I struggle with my brain physically. We go mano y mano every morning and I think one of these days I'm gonna be able to take it. Any day now. Because I'm exercising and building more than muscle. Yep, contrary to popular belief I do get outside of my home for recre...

Since my last article was a bit of a bummer, I've decided to medicate you with the best medicine available: LOL Cats. Oh, you thought laughter was the best medicine? That's so Web 1.0. Now you can get your cyber kicks while reading my blog headlines as if brought to you by cute and creepy cats. Some of the photos are spookily relevant, others humorously so. A new cat is assigned randomly every time I publish a new article. Weird, stupid fun. http://lol.ianloic.com/feed/feeds.feedburner.com/TheSplinteredMind? Bookmark it and visit it again later. It will update as I update the blog. tags technorati : LOL Cats, Cats Like reading The Splintered Mind ? Share articles with your friends, link from your blog, or subscribe !

In this rapid fire world of sound byte journalism, a new report claims that mentally ill soldiers are being propped up on meds and redeployed without counseling. Is it true? According to The Hartford Courant , "the U.S. military is sending troops with serious psychological problems into Iraq and is keeping soldiers in combat even after superiors have been alerted to suicide warnings and other signs of mental illness." If true, these are damning allegations to make during a time when public support is strained at best for a lengthy war. Following a link from MyDepressionSpace.com , I followed the trail further past the Christian Science Monitor to the original source itself: The Hartford Courant . What I found at first seemed to be a string of strawman style arguments linked together with unfounded claims, but after the hyperbole the article settled into some very thorough reporting - six pages long. There was much there to be concerned about, if true. We live in a super pill...

Ever lock yourself out of your house? Ever do it at 3am? If you have AD/HD, chances are the answer is "yes". This is going to be one of those articles my family will hate - if they bother reading it. Apparently, my joke of a life is too painful for them to read about. I say "joke" because I do my darnedest to make fun of everything whenever possible. Nothing is sacred. All topics are fair game for the scathing wit and sagacious words of Douglas R. Cootey, including my own ineptitude. It's how I cope. Otherwise, I'd be a morose, ornery cuss like some of the poor misfits who feel I don't take their disability seriously and then leave peppered comments in reply. Fortunately, the majority of my readers are in on the joke. And speaking of jokes... Reluctantly, I donned my shoes and prepared to make a 3am trek to the grocery store to purchase diapers for my five year old. Her cerebral palsy and epilepsy have made toilet training difficult. At 1am the last diap...

Here are two nifty new distractions for my Monday morning. I'll be posting a proper blog entry later today but to get me started I learned about these over at digg.com . I'm not sure they really compete with the last.fm widgets I use. They're prettier, and the first one is more interactive, but they only report on iTunes store purchases. Last.fm let's you know what I'm currently listening to regardless of where the song came from. I *could* enable the Apple ministore and let Apple know what I listen to, but who knows if that data will make it into the widget. Fortunately for the widgets' sakes, I have purchased quite a bit from the iTunes Music Store over the years. Of course, the big question is "Does anybody really care what I listen to?" Like reading The Splintered Mind ? Share articles with your friends, link from your blog, or subscribe !